Voice assistants like Siri or Alexa know where the nearest Italian restaurant is. But are they really intelligent? In Episode 2, “AI and Us” looks at the history of artificial intelligence: Eliza, the world’s first chatbot, was a sensation in the 1960s and was even supposed to be used in psychotherapy. But even today, machines still have difficulty holding a meaningful conversation.
Humboldt experts Christian Becker-Asano, Martin Butz and Milica Gašić explain why AI is reliant on the intelligence of programmers and what technology is currently used to train conversation machines.
The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
Every year, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation enables more than 2,000 researchers from all over the world to spend time conducting research in Germany. The Foundation maintains a network of well over 30,000 Humboldtians from all disciplines in more than 140 countries worldwide – including 57 Nobel Laureates.

As part of the German government’s Artificial Intelligence Strategy, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation can appoint a total of 30 Alexander von Humboldt Professors for Artificial Intelligence in the years up to 2024. These chairs are contributing to work being done to comprehensively investigate the opportunities AI offers for our future and to make use of them. They will also help strengthen Germany’s standing as an internationally attractive and influential location in this important field.

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